426. Purdue’s Dr. Lavanya Reddivari on her groundbreaking food is health research, partnerships moving discovery forward + Indiana’s opportunity to accelerate its impact

Food is health is a growing conversation across the agbioscience landscape and research is moving the conceptual to tangible solutions. Dr. Lavanya Reddivari from Purdue University joins this week to talk groundbreaking food science research, advancing discovery through the innovation pipeline and how her family roots are making something old new again.  Highlights include:  A high level overview of her research at Purdue and its impact on food is health How Lavanya views food is health from a modern, scientific research perspective Her team’s recent findings of a compound in blueberries that aids people with digestive diseases; the discovery process and how it informed follow up Nutrition as a support function for chronic illnesses that are critically impacting the U.S. population and her team’s “aha” moment where the gut microbiome was the foundation to overall health A grant Lavanya’s team received through the Heartland Children’s Nutrition Collaborative and what it has enabled their research to do How the right partnerships have enabled them to move through different stages of their exploration Lavanya’s family roots and how this story is personal for her Applying her team’s findings and putting them into practice How Lavanya wants to see this research make an impact on the world and the health of its people What she believes are our biggest opportunities to advance Food is Health, given our strengths in Indiana What’s ahead with her laboratory team that has her most excited